Third Base is the first book by Stella, the author duo of Leddy Harper and Stephie Walls. I haven't read anything by either of these authors before, so this was entirely new territory for me. I am a sucker for friends to lovers romance books though, so I had to give this one a shot. While I did finish this one and there were some things to like here, this one was a bit bizarre to me if I am honest. It was unlike any friends to lovers romance I have read before, but that wasn't really a good thing in my opinion.
Coby and Ellie have been best friends since they were kids. They had their lives planned out together, and no matter what came up they vowed to never let it change their friendship. Even when Coby was drafted and Ellie went off to college they found a way to put each other first. But while both of them tried to move forward with their lives, things just never quite fit with anyone else. So when Coby's career comes to an end, he begins to wonder if it is finally time to see if there might be more between them than friendship.
I honestly never doubted the friendship between these two. They were a pair and you could tell that they cared about each other like no one else in either of their lives. But as far as a romantic connection, at times I saw more and at times I didn't see it at all. My biggest issue with that was that Coby and Ellie didn't even see it. How could these two be so oblivious to their own feelings, yet the reader was expected to see it? Normally with a friends to lovers romance you see some angst and at least one of the characters pining for the other in a way beyond friends. But that wasn't the case here, hence why I said this one was a bit bizarre. It was just strange to me that both wouldn't have a clue how they really felt. I understand not knowing how the other felt, but if you wanted your best friend as more than just a friend, I would think you would have some inkling as to those feelings at some point. I also had a tough time feeling connected to these characters or invested in their relationship because of this.
The other thing that I really struggled with here was how slow this book was. It starts in the present, but quickly goes to the past where we see how they got to the point that things were at for the beginning of the story. There was so much time spent on these two as friends with nothing between them and there were other people involved for each of them...it was just tough to get through and I thought about putting this book down multiple times. There wasn't any cheating, but I really didn't care about the years they weren't together and others were in the picture, especially when we really weren't seeing any progression of Coby and Ellie's relationship or feelings for one another. It just felt like it was dragging and I was ready for these two to finally start getting somewhere.
Between how slow this one was and the fact that they didn't even realize their feelings, I just felt like this wasn't at all what I had hoped for. I wanted to feel the connection and chemistry between Coby and Ellie but I just never really believed it. I had high hopes for Third Base because of the trope and my love of sports romance stories, but this one just fell flat for me. If you think that this one might be a book you'd like, you might give it a shot. For me though, this isn't one I would recommend, and I am not sure that I would read more from this duo or either of the authors individually. This one was just a bit weird for me and didn't really seem to have much direction.
**ARC Provided by Give Me Books**
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